Researchers at Norton Children’s are studying how to better treat babies exposed to opioids during pregnancy.
Each year, more that 1,000 Kentucky babies are born with neonatal opioid withdrawal, which can cause tremors, excessive crying, and problems eating and sleeping. Currently, there’s no standard approach to care, and many infants are treated with opioids during the first days and weeks of life. Doctors at Norton Children’s have joined the National Institued of Health and other hospitals to study a different approach; one that focuses on family involvement, holding, and swaddling… before prescribing medication.
Dr. Lori Devlin, researcher and neonatologist at Norton Children’s, explains…
Results show that infants cared for using the “Eat, Sleep, Console” approach were ready to leave the hospital almost a week earlier than those managed by other traditional methods. Findings of the study are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
